How People’s Porn Searches Change Around Thanksgiving

Porn searches are seasonal.

If you look at trends in porn searches throughout the year, you’ll see that they follow a predictable pattern of changes that reflect seasonal events and holidays. For example, there’s a peak in porn searches related to Santa Claus each year around the Christmas holiday. Similarly, porn searches related to passion, love, and romance increase each year on Valentine’s Day, while searches related to spooky porn increase on Halloween.

With another seasonal holiday coming up this week—Thanksgiving—are we likely to see that reflected in people’s porn searches, too? If history is any guide, yes.

According to data from the adult tube site Pornhub, searches containing “thanks” spike more than 600% on Thanksgiving day. What does “thankful” porn look like? I’m not entirely sure. People who are extra appreciative of their partners? I’ll have to do some research and report back.

Some of the other searches that rise significantly around the same time include “turkey,” “kitchen,” and “food fetish,” which suggests that all of that food people eat on Thanksgiving might be an aphrodisiac for some.

Beyond eating, other popular Thanksgiving activities also seem to make their way into people’s porn searches. For example, we see rises in searches for “NFL cheerleader” and “nude cheerleader,” perhaps because a lot of people are watching football games. There’s also an increase in “Black Friday” and “Wal-Mart” porn searches, too—further proof that human beings can find a way to sexualize virtually anything.

Lastly, searches for “pilgrim,” “Pocahontas,” and “Native American” rise as well, which tells us that there seems to be a racial and colonialist bent to some of the porn searches taking place on Thanksgiving.

One caveat to all of these findings is that Pornhub doesn’t report what the average number of daily searches is for each of these terms—they just report the percentage increase in searches above the daily average. If the average level of these searches is very low to begin with, then even an increase of more than 600% might not amount to that many searches. So while the data reported here are fascinating, we should be cautious about concluding that Thanksgiving-related porn searches are widespread until more data are released.

So why do patterns of porn searches appear to change throughout the year in ways that are tied to major events and holidays?

One potential explanation is that people tend to grow tired of sexual routines—we need continued sexual novelty in order to keep our libidos revved up. Just consider that if people watch the same porn clip every day for a week, they tend to become less aroused with each viewing; however, when people are shown varied erotic clips instead, they tend to maintain higher levels of arousal over time [1].

This phenomenon is known as the Coolidge Effect and it helps to explain not just why porn searches vary so much throughout the year, but also why novelty is one of the keys to maintaining passion in a long-term relationship.

In short, if you search for Thanksgiving-related porn this week, you’re apparently not alone. And if seasonal porn is your thing, we probably have a pretty good idea of what you’re going to be searching for in December.

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[1] Kelley, K., & Musialowski, D. (1986). Repeated exposure to sexually explicit stimuli: Novelty, sex, and sexual attitudes. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 15, 487-498.

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